Hospitals and clinics frequently rely on washing equipment and processes to remove biological soil from reusable medical instruments and devices (i.e., to decontaminate the instruments and devices). In addition, the solvent used in the decontamination processes may contain chemical and/or enzymes to facilitate the removal and/or disinfection of the biological soil. In operation, the washing equipment can fail to adequately clean the instruments and devices due to one or more of a variety of reasons including, for example, washing the objects at an unacceptably low temperature and providing an inadequate volume and/or velocity of solvent to the washing process. In addition, the wash solvent can fail to adequately clean the instruments and devices due to one or more of a variety of reasons including, for example, loss of chemical and/or enzyme activity due to aging and improper dilution of active ingredients (e.g., chemicals or enzymes) in the wash solvent.
Disposable wash monitors are used for monitoring the efficacy of wash processes in washer-disinfector equipment, for example. A wash monitor typically includes a test soil disposed on a surface of an object that is placed into a washing machine. The test soil may comprise biological molecules such as, for example, human or animal red blood cells, protein, and fat. The monitor also includes a detectable marker (e.g., a pigment or dye) that can be observed to determine whether the washing machine meets minimum requirements for impinging a wash solution against an object and/or to determine whether the wash solution meets minimum requirements for chemical and/or enzymatic treatment of the object to be cleaned.
Although a variety of wash monitors are available to assess the efficacy of a decontamination process, there remains a need for improved decontamination monitors.